Reader poll: Atlantic Station is about to turn 20. How's it doing?
Josh Green
Wed, 08/06/2025 - 08:27
Long before there were master-planned, lifestyle success stories like Avalon, The Battery Atlanta, and Halcyon, there was Atlantic Station.
Long before Atlantic Station, there was a dirty old steel mill.
Now Atlantic Station, a template for brownfield redevelopment and live-work-play repurposing of urban places, is about to turn 20 years old. And it counts roughly as many annual visitors—11 million—as Georgia has people, according to owner Hines.
Come Oct. 21, Atlantic Station will have officially been open for two decades. (Initial phases of the 138-acre mega-venture were developed by Jacoby and AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corporation.) To celebrate its 20th birthday, the district recently announced a Roaring 20s-themed party will happen the evening of Saturday, Oct. 25, with more commemoration activities to be announced soon. Those shindigs will span for a full year.
Courtesy of Atlantic Station
The unique, private district (yes, it counts its own zip code, 30363) sprung from the industrial ashes of Atlantic Steel Mill, which closed in 1990 after nearly a century in business and sat vacant for years. The process of transforming soot to Atlantic Station’s own mini skyline started gaining steam in the early 2000s, and as a 12-story AMLI apartment hub’s recent debut proves, that evolution continues today.
A few important numbers, according to Hines: Atlantic Station today counts more than 8 million square feet of hotel, residential, office, and retail development. More than 6,000 people call the district home. Its offices (more than 2 million square feet total) are home to powerhouse brands such as Microsoft, Wells Fargo, and Piedmont Healthcare. Some 250 festivals and events are staged at Atlantic Station annually.
The evolution hasn’t been without turbulence. Issues involving crime, loitering, singing planters, questionable land use, and the perception that Atlantic Station was/is an over-regulated island cut off from the rest of the city had plagued the district in years past.
Courtesy of Atlantic Station
The 20th-anniversary announcement this week paints a rosier picture, however.
It describes Atlantic Station as a city within the city, a “vibrant symbol of innovation and reinvention at the heart of Atlanta,” and an “inclusive gathering place for people from all walks of life” that's alive with billions in investment and thousands of jobs. Vikram Mehra, Hines’ senior managing director, believes the district embodies Atlanta’s “Resurgens” motto. “Over the past 20 years,” Mehra noted in the announcement, “[Atlantic Station] has grown from a visionary redevelopment into a vibrant, mixed-use district and a center of economic and cultural vitality.”
No one would argue that Midtown-ish Atlanta would be better served today by a filthy, ghostly former steel mill. But with such a momentous occasion on the horizon, it seemed an appropriate time to gauge public opinion. Please take a second to log a vote below.
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Former sprawling, abandoned steel mill now counts 11 million annual visitors, per owner Hines
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